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A review by kaitmary
Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe
2.0
It feels somewhat ironic that a book about ADHD and the effects of its treatment fails to zero in at the subject at hand.
Concentr8 is a novel about the bigger picture. It's about mental health, the way modern medicine has changed the landscape for teens with issues, and the reality of who is singled out and affected most by these diagnoses. There's certainly a story to be told here, but the novel fails to make much impact.
After the government suddenly cuts off the supply of Concentr8, a futuristic drug used to treat ADHD, riots rage in the streets of London. Without their emotions in check via medication, the people are angry. Some more than others. When Blaze decides to kidnap a government official and hold him hostage, his friends Troy, Femi, Lee, and Karen go along with it because they simply don't know how not to-- they've been following Blaze their whole life. All five previously received Concentr8 and in the midst of a five-day hostage situation, they'll learn the truth about the ways the government has systematically failed "troubled kids" from the projects like them for decades.
This book has a constant POV shift that didn't really work for us. We rarely get Blaze's story, but we do get his loyal lapdog Troy, the doubtful Femi, clueless but attracted-to-power girlfriend Karen, and Lee, who was utterly pointless. I'm still not certain. All five narrate in the thick London accent known as Chav, which is gruff and not particularly pleasant in reading form, but understandably used to signify the characters' place in society. These are the kids everyone gave up on moments after they were born. Still, all of these POVs were not necessary. Lee added nothing to the story and could have been erased all together. Karen ended statements with question marks, which was added to suggest an upward inflection in her tone but grated on my eyeballs in a horrific fashion. Honestly, if it weren't for learning their individual roles in the group-- the loyal one, the doubtful one, the vapid one, etc-- the characters sounded nearly indistinguishable because there just wasn't much personality displayed.
There's also three adult narrators: The hostage, the mayor, and the journalist. The hostage had something to offer the story but was severely under-utilized. The mayor and the journalist felt like stereotypes: One over-confident, vain, and uninterested in the people he is meant to represent, the other hardened and haughty as she digs for the real truth.
I knew I didn't love the story from an early stage, but I held on in hopes that I'd get that big, profound moment that tied together the overall message hidden in there: Society is filled with injustices that target the poor and unfairly seek to modify behaviors, especially in the case of ADHD. But the story never hints that crucial moment where it all comes fill circle. Nothing much happens during the hostage crisis other than the kids sitting around and the determined journalist digging up the facts about the Concentr8 program. What the kids are doing doesn't even seem to implicitly tie back to ADHD or Concentr8, even though the story keeps telling you that it's all related.
Overall, this book meant well but failed to inspire or even truly advocate on behalf of a new approach to mental health, which made it a fairly frustrating read despite its good intentions.
Concentr8 is a novel about the bigger picture. It's about mental health, the way modern medicine has changed the landscape for teens with issues, and the reality of who is singled out and affected most by these diagnoses. There's certainly a story to be told here, but the novel fails to make much impact.
After the government suddenly cuts off the supply of Concentr8, a futuristic drug used to treat ADHD, riots rage in the streets of London. Without their emotions in check via medication, the people are angry. Some more than others. When Blaze decides to kidnap a government official and hold him hostage, his friends Troy, Femi, Lee, and Karen go along with it because they simply don't know how not to-- they've been following Blaze their whole life. All five previously received Concentr8 and in the midst of a five-day hostage situation, they'll learn the truth about the ways the government has systematically failed "troubled kids" from the projects like them for decades.
This book has a constant POV shift that didn't really work for us. We rarely get Blaze's story, but we do get his loyal lapdog Troy, the doubtful Femi, clueless but attracted-to-power girlfriend Karen, and Lee, who was utterly pointless. I'm still not certain. All five narrate in the thick London accent known as Chav, which is gruff and not particularly pleasant in reading form, but understandably used to signify the characters' place in society. These are the kids everyone gave up on moments after they were born. Still, all of these POVs were not necessary. Lee added nothing to the story and could have been erased all together. Karen ended statements with question marks, which was added to suggest an upward inflection in her tone but grated on my eyeballs in a horrific fashion. Honestly, if it weren't for learning their individual roles in the group-- the loyal one, the doubtful one, the vapid one, etc-- the characters sounded nearly indistinguishable because there just wasn't much personality displayed.
There's also three adult narrators: The hostage, the mayor, and the journalist. The hostage had something to offer the story but was severely under-utilized. The mayor and the journalist felt like stereotypes: One over-confident, vain, and uninterested in the people he is meant to represent, the other hardened and haughty as she digs for the real truth.
I knew I didn't love the story from an early stage, but I held on in hopes that I'd get that big, profound moment that tied together the overall message hidden in there: Society is filled with injustices that target the poor and unfairly seek to modify behaviors, especially in the case of ADHD. But the story never hints that crucial moment where it all comes fill circle. Nothing much happens during the hostage crisis other than the kids sitting around and the determined journalist digging up the facts about the Concentr8 program. What the kids are doing doesn't even seem to implicitly tie back to ADHD or Concentr8, even though the story keeps telling you that it's all related.
Overall, this book meant well but failed to inspire or even truly advocate on behalf of a new approach to mental health, which made it a fairly frustrating read despite its good intentions.